[Long-term culture and differentiation of skin-derived mesenchymal stem cells]

The aim of this study was to investigate the culture conditions of skin-derived mesenchymal stem cell (sMSCs) and to explore a new cell source for central nervous system cell transplantation. The cells from skins of mice were primarily isolated and cultured in serum-free medium, and they were transferred into serum-containing medium after passaged 2, and the passaged cells were identified by immunocytochemistry and induced to differentiate into multiple lineages. The results indicated that a population of sMSCs could be isolated from skins, they could be maintained in vitro for extended periods with stable population doubling, and they were expanded as undifferentiated cells in culture for more than 10 passages, indicating their proliferative capacity. About 60% of sMSCs expressed vimentin and the majorities of these cells expressed fibronectin. They could differentiate into adipocytes, osteogenic cells and fibroblast-like cells, they could differentiate into neurons with a simple protocol, and almost 50-60% of these cells expressed neuron specific enolase (NSE) and neurofilament (NF); and the differentiated neurons showed typical complicated morphology of neurons. In conclusion, skin contains stem cells that are capable of multiple differentiation; they could be cultured in vitro for long time and could maintain their characteristics of stem cells, and they may represent an alternative autologous stem cell source for CNS cell transplantation.